Join App and Chrome extension
Join is a handy pushbullet alternative what pushbullet does is syncs notifications via smartphone to computer and it really is a great way to interact with notifications without picking phone up so why use join instead well this is simply down to price, and more importantly where your data from pushes go, pushbullet charges a monthly subscription to get all the features Join on the other hand charges a one of fee to unlock all features and it is worth it.
I have been using join for just under 2yrs.
Join does everything pushbullet does it sends notifications to my chromebook via my smartphone first you need the Join app on phone or tablet then you need the chrome extension, join also has Firefox extension and windows apps.

once you have the android app then you will want to pay to unlock the bells and whistles, you do get a free 30 day trial, which is £4.99 and well worth it since pushbullet charge that per-month also another bonus with join is all your pushes are saved in a join folder on your Google drive and you can view all files, pics and pushes sent via join unlike pushbullet where it's saved on 3rd party servers.
Setting up - open the app on smartphone first and sign in using Google account, this will create the join folder in your Google drive, after granting permissions in app then sign in using same Google account on the extension now it's time to get the app set up.
Now the most important part of setting up app and extension is the encryption part input your encryption password, it is up to you what this password should be so make it long and strong, once you have set encryption password in android app then input same encryption password in the extension this will encrypt every push notification between devices.

The encryption part on chrome takes a few minutes, and always make sure you input password in android app 1st, so don’t close tab or refresh it a pop-up will appear explaining the encryption process has been completed and that the password doesn’t show because of security.
1st up in app is general which you have to give permission for accessibility setting on smartphone.

2nd is pushes and what action to take when a push notification is sent like opening new URLs sent in new tab or automatically open files when pushed

Now for SMS and phone calling settings you can have join push all SMS from phone to chrome as well as reply or send new SMS from chrome

once you have gave the permissions on phone and set it up all you do is open extension and you'll see the SMS section, if the sms section isn’t showing simple click on “your phone” section and tap on “send sms msg” and you should now see the “SMS/Phone” section.

After setting all other settings in app which are straightforward enough you are all set to receive notifications from your phone, make sure you have set what apps you want notifications pushed to chrome in the notifications setting “notification apps” and tick the apps you want to push notifications to chrome, also double check you have ticked “notification devices” as well, as well as copying clipboard and pasting stuff between devices you can send sms and read full emails inside join extension as well as some other cool stuff.
You can also do some neat stuff like hover mouse over your phone section in chrome and you’ll see an “I” showing tap on that will open a pop-out window with info about your phone.

This is a handy way to put phone into “do not disturb” mode and control volume for media and notifications and phone ring volume.
Also if you use google allo and have been waiting for the web client to come, and lets face it that has been a long wait and could be another year till we see an official allo web client using join you can view allo msgs and you can also reply to these as well.

Granted you can only send simple text replies at moment but it is handy.
Once you get a new notification from smartphone to chrome, let’s say email from gmail app, you can view the email inside join extension, you can delete that email, remember this will delete it from gmail app remotely using join, dismissing the email will clear the notification from both chrome and smartphone, email will show as unread in gmail, if you tap on the gmail notification in join it will open gmail in new tab in chrome also you can reply directly this opens a pop-up window allowing you to reply.

In short most apps on your phone have these actions and join uses that to allow you to interact on chrome, which then pushes that to your smartphone remotely, you just have to remember that interacting with join notifications will affect your notifications on smartphone delete from chrome and it deletes from phone and vice versa, your notifications are now synced.
watch the video after these tips.
Some tips for join.
if you're having trouble with notifications reading just strings of numbers and letters this is down to the encryption key password what to do is change the password in android app first then wait 5mins then change extension encryption password to same as new one in app.
If for some reason you need to uninstall either app or extension i’d recommend that you clear all data from android, long press join icon and go to app info, or settings-apps-join, and delete all data, not just cache, then go to google drive find the Join folder and delete your phone’s folder inside the join folder, you can also do this for extension depending on what you have uninstalled and installed again, and use a different encryption key password as well, once setting up again just remember to set the new key password in app then in extension.
If you're pushes are arriving late go into extension and app and join the join beta program this should sort out late and double notifications.
That is the basic set up just remember that you can also do some really cool stuff using join alongside Tasker App.
watch this handy video
Join website
if you are stuck or run into any problems just head over to the join community on google plus always people there who are willing to help.
Have fun.
Everything i post about apps is my opinion on using that app.
